Catalalunya Testing

[Andy]

MotoGP test Catalunya. Day one March 3, 2006.

The MotoGP teams returned to Europe this week for the closing stages of

winter testing. The teams began a three-day test at the Catalunya circuit,

close to Barcelona today with final testing taking place at the Jerez

circuit in, Andalusia scene of the opening race of the 17-round world

championship series.

Cold weather and strong wind made for a difficult early morning but as soon

as the track surface warmed the teams set about finding machine base

settings the riders will need to get the best out of the three-day test.

Fastest Honda rider on the opening day of test was American Nicky Hayden

(Repsol Honda). The former AMA Superbike Champion ran the whole day with

the latest version of the all-new 2006 Honda RC211V five-cylinder 990cc GP

machine he will campaign in the championship.

Hayden spent his day finding a good base setting and machine balance for

the RCV before working on a range of tyres for Michelin in a bid to find

the optimum package before moving on to fine tuning and chasing fast lap

times tomorrow.

Hayden

[lastplacebrad]

Wow, check out KR's times!!!! on a "homebuilt" bike with a decent motor! :boldblue: :boldblue:(not quite homebuilt but not exactly HRC are they!)

Edited March 3, 2006 by lastplacebrad

[Andy]

Are these reports useful? I get them anyway so it's no hassle to copy and paste.

[munch]

definately, cheers andy

[taff]

Andy, this is great.

Cheers mate

[Andy]

HONDA RACING INFORMATION

MotoGP test Catalunya. Day two of three-day test, March 4, 2006.

Nicky Hayden again fastest RCV rider at IRTA Catalunya test.

Repsol Honda rider was again the fastest Honda RC211V rider of the day at the IRTA test at Catalunya. Hayden shaved two-tenths of a second off his best time of yesterday despite struggling to find rear wheel grip in the cold and blustery conditions at the 4.727 km Spanish GP circuit, close to Barcelona.

American Hayden is putting in a mammoth stint each day of testing as he runs through a heavy HRC test programme with the 2006 RCV. Despite the low temperatures and high winds Hayden managed to get in a staggering 107 las today.

Dani Pedrosa, on the second Repsol Honda, improved his time by over half a second but crashed just after lunch. The youngster lost the front end of his RCV entering turn four but escaped injury and was quickly back on track and up to pre-crash speed.

The Fortuna Honda riders experienced mixed fortunes with their efforts to improve performance. Italian Marco Melandri was faster than yesterday but he struggled to come to grips with the new Michelin rear tyre. Melandri had been the Honda man to catch during the winter test series but the ideal RCV set up on the previous best Michelin rear proved to be way off the mark for the latest upgraded product from the French tyre supplier.

Melandri

[Andy]

HONDA RACING INFORMATION

MotoGP test Catalunya. Final day of three-day test March 5, 2006.

Nicky Hayden second in rain lashed Catalunya timed shoot out

The final day of the three-day IRTA MotoGP test at the 4.727m Catalunya circuit, on the outskirt of Barcelona was run in varying degrees of wet weather. On arrival the MotoGP riders were greeted by a damp track. The track surface had barely dried out when at lunchtime torrential rain took control of events restricting the teams and riders to testing wet weather tyres and machine set up in time for the shoot out timed session in mid afternoon.

Repsol Honda team rider American Nicky Hayden, fastest Honda rider on all three days of the test, ended the wet timed session in second place headed only by fellow American MotoGP star Colin Edwards. Hayden has been working with the latest 2006 version of the five-cylinder 990cc Honda RC211V machine he will campaign in the 17-round world championship that opens at Jerez on March 26.

Hayden's team-mate, Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, a MotoGP debutante in 2006, spent the day getting used to his 240 hp plus RCV in the wet conditions and was not looking to make a name for himself in the timed shoot out. Pedrosa was happy with his performance and announced himself satisfied with the results of the three-day test.

Fortuna Honda riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elias enjoyed mixed results on the final day. Italian Melandri the fastest of the two men finishing in 6th,just over a second down on Hayden. Elias didn't get to grips with his RCV in the wet conditions leading up to the timed session and eventually finished down in 15th.

Makoto Tamada spent the entire day working to find the best wet weather machine settings. The Konica Minolta Honda rider worked on a softer feeling. Once he had the feed-back from the bike that he needed Tamada moved onto rain tyre testing for Michelin before taking to the track for the timed session ending up in 12th place.

Team Roberts wrapped up a successful three-days of testing with definite improvements to the KR211V. The major work has been done and the team is concentrating on detailed work to the latest version of the Team Roberts built chassis that houses the Honda RC211V five-cylinder engine. Team owner Kenny Roberts Senior was in buoyant mood as he discussed the next stage of development for the KR211V.

Team Roberts rider, Kenny Roberts Jnr was setting faster an faster lap times as the shoot out wore on but the Californian slid off the KR211V when seventh place ruining any chance of top honours on the day.

"Things are definitely moving in the right direction and we will use the data we gained at this test to build the next generation chassis in time for the GP at Jerez." Explained Roberts Senior.

Honda rider lap times and quotes.

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 58.921s. Official timed session. "It's really nice to see a little bit of the winter's work pay off and have a good feeling in the wet. I know this session doesn't really mean anything but when I crossed the line and looked at the screen I was actually on top, so I was pretty excited there for a second. I'm not one of those guys to talk about how hard we've worked because normally those are the lazy guys! But this winter we've spent a lot time in the wet at Phillip Island and Sepang, finding a set up I like in the wet, so I'm pleased. It would have been nice to run in the dry today. We've got plenty of work to do at the next test so it would be nice to have some good weather in Jerez. I'm sure it will be a three full days of testing."

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2m 07.326s. Official timed session. "Today we didn't do many laps because only two of the runs were dry before the rain came. But this test was really useful because it was good to test at a different track for the whole team as well as for me. I'm still learning how to ride a MotoGP bike and I'm happy because I'm making the kind of progress that I'd hoped, taking things step by step and going forward. So the timed session wasn't really important for me."

Makoto Tanaka Repsol Honda Team Manager "It's a shame Nicky just missed out on top spot from the timed session! Nicky found quite a good set-up for wet conditions but hadn't enough time to get the quickest time. I think Dani needs more experience, especially in heavy wet conditions, but he brought back his bike looking good! Over the three days of this test we had some very good results, especially on the engine side, but we still have an issue with rear traction. It's disappointing that we couldn't go as fast as we'd have liked here and we have a lot of work still to do, but we know what we have to work on."

Marco Melandri, Fortuna Honda: 2m 00.218s. Official timed session. "We have improved over this difficult weekend but we now have a clear view of our problem with the bike. In these wet conditions the bike is very easy to ride. But even in the conditions here we got a lot of interesting data to work with so even a wet day like today was not useless. Now we go to Jerez for the final test before the championship and we will run a race distance and hope we are ready for the season."

Toni Elias, Fortuna Honda: 2m 05.961s. Official timed session. "I'm sorry for the fans that came to watch us today, the weather conditions spoilt their day, and ours. It's true that we are having some problems at the moment that we have to solve as soon as we can but today's conditions didn't help us too much. I'm positive with the situation and we will stay working hard day by day - stay focused and be ready for Jerez."

Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 2.02,197. Official timed session. "Today's test day has been nearly unhelpful. I could only test the bike on wet conditions for the fist time this year. The impression is the same I had already had with a dry race bike setting, therefore, even in this conditions the last part of the corner approach, is still the phase to be improved.. I am not able yet to ride as I would like to, because I have to force the bike too much to make it lean. In Jerez, we hope to find better weather conditions in order to have all the necessary time to close this development phase of new Honda RC211V basic setting."

Giulio Bernardelle - Konica Minolta Honda Technical Director "There have not been the right conditions to work profitably, neither with dry ground nor with wet ground. The rain, which started falling around midday has never been constant therefore the grip conditions on the ground were continuously changing. For this, after the qualifying session, we decided to interrupt the test in advance because the work we have to do in this moment would not lead to any useful information if done in these conditions."

Kenny Roberts Junior, KR Honda: 2m 00.205s. Official timed session. "We have made good progress at this test especially now we have adjusted the seating position. I'm much more comfortable on the bike now and feel I have a better balance. We are much closer to the top group. Up until now e have been making big changes to make improvements but now it's just small things, the closer you get to the top it gets like that. Generally I'm happy with everything the team has done this weekend in the conditions we faced, we have not had a single problem. The bike feels great, especially in the wet and I found a good rhythm in the timed session but I made a silly mistake and threw it away. It's just one of those things. When you are getting close to he limit you push a little harder. But I'm happy as we can see the future is bright, there's lots more to come."